Chapter 21, Stages Summary

Killgore visits Farmer outside where the security guard takes care of injured owls and hawks. Farmer apologizes for not seeing Mary leaving her room. Killgore is not overly concerned. Mary does not know where she is and soon she won't be around any way. Killgore muses about the future when nature is able to re-take the earth. Perhaps in the future, families would travel to the dead cities to learn how man had violated the earth in the past. Vultures would do well for a while with all the dead bodies. The population of rats whose survival depends on human trash would decline. Humanity as the dominant force on earth would replaced by the earth itself. Only a select group of humans would be there to see this wonderful evolution.